yea thats what I was thinking, the guitar will be done on thurs, so tommorow im going in with a couple of friends and chatting with him and asking him if he wants to help us film some reviews of guitars....

i found a site that pays $50 per video of reviews that you upload, can be about anything but guitars are easy to do...

so ill tell him about that and maybe he'll cut me a deal if im nice haha

unless you have a hollow body/semi hollow, changing pots is a very easy job to do yourself. and guitar center has much better prices/ selection than most of the local shops in my area as far as gear, i don't know about repairs though, i do all that shit myself.

See me being intelligent made friends with the guy and he does my work for either A free or B very cheap

lol me being intelligent I learned how to do the work myself!

But $75 for 3 pots is outrageous. that's roughly an hour's bench time with something that should take half that tops. take it to a different shop if you aren't comfortable doing it yourself, OR, buy a soldering iron and the pots and replace them.

Its rather simple if you're replacing them, that way you don't have to read a schematic or anything, just pull the wires off one, put them on the same place on the other and stick it in the guitar.

Guitar Center gets "first dibs" on almost all top brand guitars such as Ibanez / Fender / Jackson / Gibson, so if you need to get a limited edition guitar, they (or drumcityguitarland.com) are your best option...For example, when Ibanez put out the RG550 Reissue (1987 total guitars worldwide), Guitar Center got like half of them, and they got every guitar of the first batch. So thats why I go to them over local stores, but for repairs, I always do it myself or go local...

i dunno how it works, but isnt he independant so he can charge w/e and he doesnt do through guitar center?

Yeah, but most random guitar techs don't have paypal accounts, I also don't think they would have the ability to use paypal on their work machines (if they have a PC to use the internet at all) to send/receive cash.

If you're worried about cash you can either wait until you get money back from Paypal or go out and spend $40 on the soldering iron, solder and pots and do it yourself.

Quote by MatrixClaw

Wow, that's rediculous, I got my EMG 81/85 set installed on my SG for $35...that requires a lot more than just replacing pots...

Not really. $35 is about a half hour on the work bench, which is what it should take to swap out a set of electronics.

putting EMGs in is just wiring a battery in, swapping pots and swapping out pickups. It really isn't a big deal... Its just a few soldering connections more and if you don't have to open the guitar up multiple times it takes only a couple extra minutes.

Just make sure you're following the right diagram and double check your guitar/connections before you close it up. keep the soldering iron hot while you try out your new pickups an you can make any quick adjustments you need before you're finished.

New pickups are always so much fun. haha.

EDIT:

Also, if you feel that the bill is unjust you could always talk to him about it and see what caused the big hike in rates. $75 is alot, about $20 of that is from the pots; however I can't see putting an hour into replacing 3 pots.

Might as well go in and talk to the guy before you get all upset over something.

Is this combined with a set up and string change?? That usually costs 30-40 bucks almost anywhere.

How long would it take you to change the three pots your self? I figure it'll take him about 2 hours if he is doing a set and adjust as well.

If you break that down, he is only getting about $37.50 per hour for his labor. If he is a vendor that works on his own inside the store, he has to buy and maintain his own tools, health insurance (including sick days), pay rent or commission back to store to keep his space all out of that measly 75 he is charging you. He probably nets $20 or $25 out of thatper hour. That is not a hell of a lot for a guy trying to make a real living at it.

Most if these guys are small businesses inside the store. They usually do setups for the new gear in the store at dirt cheap for the store, and make their money on setups and installs.

If you are a regular customer (to the tech not the store) you have a right to be a little pissed and ask for a discount or a break. If not this is America you do have choices.

Not trying to start a war, just a view from the other side. By the way, I am not a tech, but like another post, I know a good one, and have gone out of my way to mike friends with him.

i had the same thing in denmark street in london. i went into rockers( the "best" shop there) and asked for my guitar to be set up for drop-D (its a floyd rose) cos i had no experience doing it.

first off he asked for £40 (about $75) plus strings, which i thought was a bit steep but what the hell.he then said it would take a week. so i came back a week later and he said that he hadnt done it yet. and that it would be ready at the end of the day. so i had to wait around for 4 hours till it was done. it wasnt too bad cos i spent most of it playing half the shops stock of guitars and an hour or so in the pub.

when i actually got the guitar back i paid and left. when i got home i found that he had completely screwed up the action and had left it in standard tuning. what a ****ing knob.

sorry for the rant but the moral of the story is to just learn to do it yourself. it may take a little while to learn but it will save you alot of hassle and money in the future

that $75 is probably their hourly rate, and they probably charge a minimum of 1 hour.

i don't think you'll spend more than $10 for a basic soldering iron, and electronics solder is about $1.50and its such a simple procedure, you could probably figure it out without any instruction what so ever. if you get brand new pots, you can practice soldering on your old ones when you ppull them out of your guitar.

Jeez, I got a soldering iron for like 5 bucks at Radio shack. Ravage some old/useless electronics you have in your house to practice your soldering and as the person above me suggested, practice on an old/starter guitar.